by Monica L. Garrett

Created on: June 01, 2011   Last Updated: June 03, 2011

Feral cats lean toward their wild nature and will often fight domestic pet cats.  This can cause harm to your pet and cost you a lot of money in vet bills.  Other problems can be that your outdoor cat would get into a so-called "spraying war" with the feral cat who visits your lawn, causing a terrible odor around your home.  

A cat's urine is very foul smelling and feral cats who visit neighborhoods often mark their new found territory quite heavily, especially in areas where your pet cat has marked.  This can become a huge problem for you.  

Feral cats are not spayed or neutered.  If you have an unfixed cat, perhaps due to a young age, you could also end up with unwanted kittens.  Large male feral cats may cause a young non-spayed kitten to have a premature litter, which could cause harm or death to your cat.  

Keeping these events from happening around your home will keep your cats safe.  Cats are communal animals and will come around where other cats are.  Closing external buildings to prevent them from serving as shelter for the feral cats will help deter them from your home.  Additionally, you'll need to feed and water your cats indoors.  Nothing says "come on in" to feral cats as much as a big bowl of cat food and fresh water on your front porch.

To keep your cats safe from feral cats, follow the following guidelines:

Have all of your cats spayed or neutered.  This will lessen the likelihood of males fighting.  

Keep all of your cats up to date on their immunizations from Feline Leukemia and Rabies.  Many feral cats do carry Feline Leukemia, often referred to as Fe-Leuk.  

Trap and release feral cats - use a live trap cage to trap feral cats living in your area.  Take them to the vet (many offer a program which pays most of the spay or neuter) to be fixed.  Then, release them in the same location.  Some vet offices will clip the ear of the cat in order to indicate that they have been fixed.  

By using these techniques, you will be helping to keep your own cats safe. This will also help the feral cat and you'll be doing your part so that kittens are not born into a feral community.  

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